SAN FRANCISCO – The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference kicked off in San Francisco’s Union Square on Monday.

The conference drew an estimated 8,000 attendees to the Westin St. Francis.

Mayor Daniel Lurie addressed attendees on the first day, saying they arrived as the city was on an upward trajectory.

“At this very moment, San Francisco is at an inflection point, and in this new era our potential has no ceiling,” said Lurie. “I’m glad you bet on San Francisco and brought your conference here.”

The conference has a significant impact, attracting other conventions to the city to coincide with J.P. Morgan’s. Alex Bastian from the San Francisco Hotel Council said it has resulted in full hotel rooms around the city.

“We’re talking about 20,000 people total probably in town around this time,” Bastian said. “We have 8,000 here for J.P. Morgan. But we also have a lot of people who come here for those indirectly related conferences.”

The conference in San Francisco follows the high-profile assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last month.

SEE ALSO: FBI says tip from San Francisco police helped identify UnitedHealth CEO shooting suspect

With that in mind, there is heightened security in the Union Square area.
Dozens of police officers were on patrol and even posted in the lobby of the St. Francis.

San Francisco police confirmed that significant work went on behind the scenes with J.P. Morgan and hotels in the area to develop detailed security plans.

The increased police presence around Union Square is only a small part of a much larger security plan.

“This could not be done without the collaboration between the hotel industry and our law enforcement partners,” said Bastian. “Especially San Francisco Police Department.”

Some guests attending the conference said they’ve been to previous conventions in San Francisco and noticed the increase in security.

“Clearly there’s been an effort to clean up the square, lots of police around which does bring some comfort,” said Sahil Kirpekar from New York. “I did walk around last night, and as you go up the hill, it did feel a bit unsafe in places. But I appreciate the effort the city is putting in.”

The Union Square Alliance said the conference is bringing visitors to hotels, restaurants, and businesses in the area.

The aim is to send those visitors home with a good impression of Union Square and San Francisco in general.

“Absolutely, 8,000 people concentrated right here at Union Square,” said Marisa Rodriguez from the Union Square Alliance. “This is not the convention center; this is Union Square and all the things surrounding this district. Eight thousand people generating over $92 million in economic impact. That is huge.”

The hope is that a successful conference will bring more conventions and conferences to the city. The conference runs through Thursday.

The San Francisco Giants have made some splashy moves this winter under first-year executive Buster Posey by bringing in Willy Adames and Justin Verlander, but they were hoping to make some more.

Every team around the league was hoping to sign Roki Sasaki, and the Giants were no exception.

The 23-year-old Japanese phenom is coming to the United States before the usual posting age, meaning he can only be inked to an international contract instead of the megadeals his fellow countrymen have signed in the past.

Because of that, the competition was fierce for Sasaki.

San Francisco was able to get a meeting with the future star, something that put them in a good position to land the talented youngster, but it sounds like they won’t be signing him.

This is a tough blow for the Giants.

After already signing Verlander to a short-term contract, adding Sasaki on something extremely affordable deal to give them an ace-caliber arm alongside Logan Webb for the future was hard not to get excited about.

It’s long been thought the phenom would end up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, mainly because of his connections to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and this does nothing to dispel that notion.

Sasaki is known to have met with at least seven teams with it being understood that one of them would be his destination.

That’s why there was hope San Francisco would win these sweepstakes.

But, this report has revealed that general manager Zack Minasian was told they would not be the team Sasaki signs with, ending speculation he would join the Giants.

SAN FRANCISCO – First Lady Jill Biden is coming to San Francisco this week for women’s health initiatives. 

Dr. Biden is expected to arrive at San Francisco International Airport Monday afternoon and will stay through Wednesday. She is traveling to the Bay as part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. 

Dr. Biden is joining Fierce JPM Week on Tuesday to discuss the importance of advancing women’s health research. 

The initiative was launched in November 2023 by President Joe Biden and Dr. Biden with the goal of changing how the U.S. approaches and funds research on women’s health, the White House said on their website. 

“Women are over half the population, but research on women’s health has always been underfunded and under-studied,” according to the initiative.